


Deep Blue Sea

by Dean_hugs_Sammy



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Gen, Hurt Dean, Hurt Sam, Sam Winchester's Visions, Sick Sam
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-12-29
Updated: 2014-12-29
Packaged: 2018-03-04 05:28:28
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 2
Words: 8,683
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2954006
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Dean_hugs_Sammy/pseuds/Dean_hugs_Sammy
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The boys take a trip to the coast of California to check out a case of mysterious drownings.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Set in the beginning of season two.

Dean parked the shiny black Chevy Impala in the parking lot in front of the motel where he and Sam were staying for this time being. He turned the engine off and patted the steering wheel in a silent thank you to the car for keeping the temperature inside the cabin relatively low despite the heat outside, before he picked up a bag of supplies from the passenger seat and stepped out of the car. As he walked across the pavement towards the motel room, Dean turned his head, squinted against the sun and let his eyes travel across the turquoise-colored ocean he could spot in the distance. Looking at the still water, sparkling by the beams of the sun reflecting in it, it was hard to believe that several people had drowned in the water during the past few weeks – tourists, to be more specific, which there were a lot of in the town of Sunnyvale.

Dean sighed and wiped some sweat off his forehead with the back of his hand. Sunnyvale was a neighbor town to Palo Alto and this was the first time the Winchester brothers had returned to the Californian west coast since Dean had rescued his younger brother from the fire that had cost Sam his girlfriend. Speaking of the youngest Winchester brother, Sam had been feeling under the weather from the moment they'd arrived in town. Dean wasn't sure whether it had occurred because of the significant change in weather that never did his brother any good or because of all the stress Sam was faced with by returning to a place so close to where he'd lost Jessica. Either way, Sam's nose had soon started running which had been followed by sneezes and Dean had then ordered his little brother to bed while he took the Impala out for a spin to pick up the necessary supplies needed to help get Sam better.

The older brother unlocked the motel room door, turned the doorknob and – with the keys in one hand and the bag of supplies in the other – Dean pushed the door open with his shoulder before stepping inside and.. _didn't_ find Sam where he'd left him.

"What the hell are you doing?" Dean demanded to know with an irritated frown line between his eyes.

Sam looked up at his older brother from behind his laptop with an expression that reminded Dean of a kid being caught with his fingers in the cookie jar.

"I'm working on the case." Sam said in a voice clearly affected by his congested nose.

"Yeah, I can see that, smartass." Dean said as he put down the bag of supplies on the table. "And didn't I tell you to stay in bed?"

"Yeah, but.." Sam started when Dean cut him off.

"No buts, Sam. Bed. Now." Dean ordered. He hadn't missed the fever-flushed spots on Sam's cheeks.

Sam sighed heavily but didn't protest any further before he got up from his seat and returned to the bed farthest away from the door. He sank down under the covers and coughed a little while rubbing at his already red-rimmed eyes.

"This sucks." Sam muttered.

"I know." Dean said in a softer voice while unpacking the remedies he needed to take care of his sick little brother.

Twenty-seven minutes, some antihistamines and a half glass of apple-juice later, Sam was asleep and lightly snoring in his bed. Dean removed some used Kleenexes from Sam's covers before he placed a gentle hand underneath the younger brother's bangs.

"Let's hope some sleep will do you well, little brother." Dean mumbled before he removed his hand from the clammy forehead and tucked the blanket in a little closer around Sam's sleeping form.

The action of it was as natural for Dean as it was for a mother dealing with her sick child. Throughout almost their entire lives, Dean had been the one taking care of his brother; comforting Sam when he'd had a nightmare, patching him up when he'd hurt himself and fixing him when he got sick. Some things never changed, he realized with a little fond smile, and Dean didn't want it any other way.

Dean carded a hand through his short-spiked hair, his eyes lingering on the slight movements behind Sam's closed eyelids. He remembered the first months after Jessica's death, the endless amounts of nightmares that had plagued his brother night after night, the guilt that had come along with it. It had been hard and Dean had done everything in his power to help Sam get through the pain and sorrow – although Dean knew that nothing he could say or do could ever bring Jessica back. Eventually the nightmares reduced, however, and for that Dean was grateful. Sam had already been through so much in his young life and now with their dad gone too.. Dean shook his head and willed the thoughts about his father's last words to him away. The oldest Winchester brother would never give up on saving Sam. _Never_. He would rather die. Dean knew he hadn't been the greatest big brother since John Winchester had passed away but he was working on it. Sam was hurting too and Dean had never been able to watch his Sammy suffer without doing anything about it.

Dean tore his eyes away from his younger brother and sat down in front of Sam's laptop to take a look at what Sam had been doing while Dean was out buying supplies. Sam had actually been the one persuading Dean to return to California since he'd had another one of those freaky visions that scared Dean just as much as it scared Sam – maybe even more, if Dean had to be honest, but that wasn't something he intended to tell the younger brother. They had been on the road, in the middle of a discussion about whether or not Pepsi-Cola was greater than Coca-Cola, when Sam had suddenly gone rigid and had stared straight ahead with wide, blank eyes.

"Sam?" Dean had asked and had then quickly pulled over the Impala as he had recognized the signs of a vision on his brother's face. Dean had grabbed Sam's shoulders in a reassuring way and had held his breath until Sam eventually blinked his way back to the real world. The younger brother had scrunched his forehead because of the headache that always came along with the visions and had then shakily told Dean that he'd seen a man get his heart ripped out by an unknown creature. The next day, Dean had read about the multiple drownings in Sunnyvale in a newspaper and had noted – aside from the fact that all three victims were men – that they'd all been found without their hearts. There had been a picture in the newspaper of the latest victim and when Dean had shown the picture to Sam, his little brother could confirm that the person indeed had been the guy from his vision.

Sam's laptop made a sound when Dean opened the lid of it, and he quickly glanced in Sam's direction to see if the sound had woken up his sick brother. Dean smiled wryly when that wasn't the case. Sam was still oblivious to the world around him – still snoring softly through his congested nose.

"So, what did you find out, Sammy?" Dean muttered as he looked through the opened windows of documents that had appeared on the screen in front of him.

Although Sam shouldn't have done anything else than staying in bed, he had as usually been very thorough and efficient with his research – even when being sick.

"Nerd." Dean chuckled good-heartedly and clicked through the pages.

He considered for a moment whether or not to take just a _tiny_ peek at a certain website now that he had the chance, but decided against it since he saw no reason to upset his sick little brother. And Sam had been quite bitchy the last time Dean had used his laptop. How Sam could always tell when Dean had _borrowed_ his laptop was beyond the older brother, but there was probably some sort of geeky explanation to it that Dean couldn't care less about.

Dean once again focused on the research and read through page after page of possible water creatures they could be dealing with; Water spirits, Grindylows, Merpeople, Sirens – among other various creatures. But nothing fit with the missing hearts.

Dean sighed and went to the fridge to grab a beer. Sam had seen a short glimpse in his vision of the creature they were hunting, but he hadn't been able to pinpoint what it was besides from the fact that it had been female. Dean concluded that it would be pretty impossible to solve the case from the motel room alone so if lives were gonna be saved, then they probably had to go check out the scene of crime: the ocean coast. Dean popped the cap of his beer bottle and took a drop of it while looking at his sleeping brother. Sam was sick and therefore in no condition to leave his bed which left Dean with only one option – to leave Sam behind to go work the case on his own; an option Dean didn't like one bit.

The young hunter put down the beer bottle alongside the laptop on the table, before he crouched down next to Sam's bed and gently shook his brother's shoulder.

"Sammy." Dean called.

Sam didn't react at first which didn't surprise the older brother one bit. Sam had always been a lightweight when it came to any kind of medication. Dean called his brother's name once more and this time Sam let out a soft groan and turned his head a bit in the direction of Dean's voice.

"Sammy." Dean said again and smiled a little as Sam's green eyes slowly blinked open. "Hey dude."

"Hey." Sam said in a hoarse voice, cleared his throat and then winced when the action of doing so had hurt his sore throat.

"How are you feeling? You hungry?" Dean asked. "I bought some chicken soup I can heat up in the microwave for ya."

"No thanks." Sam said and brushed the hand with his casted wrist through his sweaty bangs. "I'm not hungry."

Dean, being the overprotective brother that he was, didn't look satisfied by the answer and Sam suppressed a smile. He was still trying to get used to the fact that he, little by little, was getting his big brother back. When their dad had died, Dean had become withdrawn and somewhat cold towards the younger Winchester. Sam had wanted to talk but the more he'd tried to get closer to his brother, the more Dean had pushed him away – to the point where Sam had actually started wondering if Dean had stopped caring about his little brother altogether. Then Sam had broken his wrist plus had started having visions again, and Dean had finally put aside his brooding to be there for Sam again. And the younger brother was more than grateful for it. Sam hadn't realized how much Dean's protectiveness and mother-henning had meant to him until the day he'd lost it.

"Well, you're at least gonna drink something." Dean said and pushed a bottle of water into Sam's hand before he found a couple of Tylenols. "And take these too."

Sam accepted the offered pills and swallowed them down with water.

"How's it going with the case?" He then wanted to know.

"I looked through your research but nothing fit entirely with what we know about the case so far. I think we need to check out the beach." Dean said.

"Alright, when are we leaving?" Sam asked and started moving into a sitting position on the bed when Dean pushed him back down by a hand to his chest.

" _You,_ my brother, are staying right where you are." Dean said. "I'll check out the beach on my own."

Sam shot his older brother a glare.

"Several people have already drowned in that ocean, Dean. Their hearts were missing." Sam said.

"Which is why this case needs to be solved before more people get killed." Dean said.

"I agree." Sam said. "But you're not doing this alone."

He once more tried to get up from the bed and once again Dean pushed him back down.

"Sam, will you just.. stay put, dammit!" Dean exclaimed. "I'm going to work the case and you're gonna stay in bed. You hear me?"

"Fine." Sam mumbled.

"What was that?" Dean asked though he'd heard the word perfectly well.

" _Fine._ " Sam said in a louder voice, bitch-face firmly in place, which made an amused smile flicker on Dean's face for a moment.

Dean then hesitated as he briefly wondered if he should ask Sam how he was holding up now that they were so pretty damn close to where Sam had once lost his girlfriend, but Dean couldn't find the right words to say and decided it was probably wiser not to bring up the issue anyway.

"You just focus on getting better, okay?" Dean instead said and gave Sam's shoulder a reassuring squeeze, before he started preparing to leave the motel room.

**_ SPN _**

Dean ducked at just the right time to avoid being hit square in the face by a beach ball. As he straightened back up, he frowned at a crowd of laughing teenagers that ran past him in the golden sand to chase the ball he'd barely managed to steer clear of. Somewhere nearby, the young hunter could hear a kid plead his mother for an ice-cream while a couple of seagulls flew by on the unclouded sky above him.

"And you're absolutely sure you didn't see anything suspicious? Anything out of the ordinary?" Dean asked the lifeguard he'd been questioning ever since arriving on the beach.

"No, not until the bodies showed up on the shore." The lifeguard said and carded a hand through his long blond hair that was being held in place by a purple and orange-dotted headband.

" _He probably isn't aware of how ridiculous he looks."_ Dean thought with a soft snort. " _Even Sam's curly mop looks stylish compared to it."_

The lifeguard shot him a weird look and Dean cleared his throat to cover up the snort he hadn't managed to hold back.

"And the missing hearts?" Dean asked, forcing himself to look anywhere else than at the headband.

"The local police think some bizarre sea creatures did it." The lifeguard said.

"Yeah? And what do you think?" Dean wanted to know.

"Honestly? I've heard a lot of strange stories in my years of being a lifeguard, but as far as I know, no sea creature could have done _that_." The lifeguard admitted and peered across the many tourists on the beach before looking at Dean again. "Their hearts were just.. ripped out, ya know? No sea creatures I've ever heard of would be contented with only a certain piece of a person's body and nothing more than that. It's almost.. unnatural. You know what I mean?"

"Yeah." Dean said with a gloomy look and nodded. Something supernatural had definitely killed those people.. but which creature?

Dean decided to visit the local morgue to hopefully find more clues on the creature they were hunting, so he thanked the lifeguard for his help and then trotted back towards the Impala through the burning hot sand along the coastline. The oldest Winchester brother passed by a lot of sunbathing tourists, some laughing kids playing in the sand, and a whole bunch of people swimming in the ocean. He couldn't help but feeling concerned about the fact that anyone of these people could be the next victim to show up on the shore with a missing heart. The sooner Dean figured out what creature to kill and how to do it, the better. And the sooner the case was solved, the sooner he could return to his sick little brother.

As Dean slid behind the wheels of the Impala, he fished up his cell phone from his jeans pocket and quickly glanced at the display to see if he'd received any messages or calls from Sam.

_Nothing._

Dean hoped the lack of news from his brother meant that Sam was doing well, and not indicated that Sam was so sick that he was unable to contact his big brother even if he wanted to and - more importantly - _needed_ to. Dean pushed the sombre thoughts away and turned the keys in the ignition of the car before heading towards the morgue.

**_ SPN _**

The visit at the morgue had turned out to be rather informative. Dean felt like he was given more and more pieces for the puzzle but couldn't exactly figure out how to put them together – that's what he usually had his geeky younger brother for. Dean bit his lower lip and turned his cell phone over a couple of times while trying to decide whether or not to call Sam. He didn't want to wake Sam up since the youngest Winchester brother needed his rest to get better but he could need some help with the case. Besides, Dean wanted to check up on Sam anyway so he could as well kill two birds with one stone.

" _Hey._ " Sam said when he picked up the phone, and Dean winced a little when he detected the hoarseness in Sam's voice.

"Hey bro. Did I wake you up?" Dean asked.

" _No, it's fine. I wasn't asleep._ " Sam said.

"Good. How are you feeling?" Dean wanted to know. "Better? Worse?"

" _I'm alright._ " Sam answered but Dean wasn't gonna be brushed aside that easily.

"The truth, Sammy." Dean said in a sharp tone which made Sam sigh.

" _I've been better but it's nothing to worry about Dean. Just a cold._ " Sam said.

"Okay." Dean said and was about to move on to the case but still had one more question for his brother. "Did you at least eat the chicken soup?"

" _Eh.._ " Sam said in a careful way.

"Sam." Dean sighed despondently, closed his eyes and pinched the bridge of his nose before letting the issue go for now. "Listen, I just came from the morgue and got some interesting information from the doctor."

" _What did he say?_ " Sam wanted to know.

"Well, it turns out all three victims had been laid just before they were killed." Dean said.

" _Seriously?_ " Sam asked.

"Seriously." Dean confirmed. "And get this; the good old doctor said that if he didn't know better, he would go ahead and say that it looked like someone had _literally_ stuck their hand into the victims' chests and ripped their hearts out."

" _Just like I saw in my vision."_ Sam said.

"Yeah, especially since the autopsy revealed that the missing hearts were the cause of death instead of drowning - and not the other way around as the police mistakenly believed." Dean said as he opened up the door to the Impala and got inside. "Look, I'm heading back towards the beach again to snoop a little around. If you figure out what we're dealing with, you let me know alright?"

" _Okay._ " Sam said before coughing a little.

"You stay in bed with that laptop of yours." Dean ordered. "No walking around."

" _And what if I need to go to the bathroom?_ " Sam asked. Dean could clearly hear the smirk in his voice.

"Keep it up dude and I might cut your hair while you sleep." Dean threatened. "Oh, and Sam?"

" _Yeah?_ "

"That bowl of chicken soup better be eaten by the time I get back." Dean said before hanging up.

**_ SPN _**

Dean spent the next hour looking for anything useful on the beach which wasn't exactly easy with people all over the area. However, after talking to a few people it turned out that all three victims had drifted to shore at the exact same spot – which probably meant that they'd all been killed at the same place. Dean let his eyes travel across the ocean, a thoughtful wrinkle appearing between his brows. Had the victims been murdered in the water or on a boat maybe?

"Maybe we're looking at this whole thing wrong." Dean muttered.

Since the victims had been drifting to the shore from the ocean, the Winchester brothers had automatically assumed that they were dealing with a water creature, but what if they weren't? The murdered men had died from having their hearts ripped out _before_ ending in the water, so theoretically they could be dealing with any kind of creature really.

"Great.. Just great." Dean sighed and picked up his phone to call Sam when a lovely scent of perfume reached his nostrils. It was almost.. _seductive_.

The oldest Winchester brother turned his head and came face to face with a hot lady with ice-blue eyes and a gorgeous smile.

"Fancy a drink, honey?" She asked and Dean then realized she was the waitress from the little beach-bar he was standing next to.

"Oh, ehm.." Dean said, looking from the waitress to his phone and back at the waitress again. What had he been about to do? Oh right, call Sam! "No thanks, sugar. I'm working."

Dean flashed her a smile along with the fake FBI-badge he'd been showing people all day.

"Oh, you're an agent?" The waitress asked. "You're here because of the people who drowned?"

"Actually, I think they might have been murdered." Dean revealed and then wondered why the hell he'd just told her that.

"Oh no, that's terrible." The waitress said with a little gasp.

"Don't worry, I'll make sure the one responsible will be caught." Dean promised and as the waitress smiled, Dean noticed once again how attractive she was. She actually reminded him of an old fling he once had.

"You know, I actually don't feel safe. You think you could protect me?" The waitress asked and let a hand slide down Dean's arm. "I'm off in ten minutes."

It was tempting. _Really_ tempting. He could push everything else aside for a few hours with the waitress, couldn't he? The waitress smiled again and Dean barely stopped himself from groaning out loud. He wanted her. He _needed_ her. Wanted to feel those pretty lips against his own and - _no._ The big brother voice inside of him tore Dean out of his thoughts. Sam was still alone at the motel, still sick, and Dean needed to make sure he was alright. No matter how hot the waitress was, she wasn't as important as Sammy.

"I'm sorry but I can't." Dean told her, and the smile on her face faded for a few seconds since the waitress clearly didn't get turned down a lot.

"Here's my number if you change your mind." The waitress said and handed over a little note with a written number. She then left and Dean felt a loss right away. What the hell was going on? There was something fishy about that waitress and Dean intended to figure out what it was.

Dean hid behind the beach bar and didn't have to wait too long for the waitress to be off work. He then frowned as he noticed that she wasn't alone but was leaving the bar with an unknown man. The young hunter discretely followed behind the couple like a shadow while making sure they wouldn't see him, and Dean soon realized that the waitress was leading the man to a big boat at the far end of the pier. As the couple went onboard, Dean reached into his jacket pocket and took out a silver knife.

" _Whatever that bitch is, she's going down!_ " Dean thought and snuck closer to the boat.

He carefully climbed onboard and from his hidden position, Dean could see that the waitress had started to unbutton the man's shirt and was straddling the guy while kissing him. As careful and quiet as only a well-trained hunter could be, Dean closed the gap between him and the couple and just as he raised the knife that shimmered in the setting sun, the waitress spun around and thrust her hand into Dean's chest.

Dean gasped in shock, the knife dropping to the deck with a clatter as pain seeped through his chest and spread to his entire body.

"What a shame." The waitress said. "I would have loved to get my way with you before killing you, but beggars can't be choosers."

Dean's eyes widened as she then pulled her hand back – his heart no longer a part of his body. Dean immediately dropped to the deck. _Dead_.

**_ SPN _**

"No!" Sam shouted. "No! No! _Dean_!"

Sam gasped for breath – the vision of Dean dying so intense and painful that he rolled to the side and started puking up whatever small contains that had been inside his stomach. Sam coughed and gagged a little more before wiping his mouth with the back of the hand that wasn't currently covered with a cast.

Sam had been on the phone with Dean a little while ago, when his brother had informed him about what he'd found out about the case so far, and ever since then Sam had been on his laptop. The fact that the victims were men, the intercourse, the missing hearts, the woman he had seen kill a guy in his first vision - it all added up to one thing; a succubus. Sam had been about to call Dean to let him in on it when he'd suddenly dropped to the carpet of the motel room as he'd been hit by a new vision – a vision where Dean had been killed by the creature.

"No." Sam gasped and tried to think around the gigantic headache that was jack-hammering its way inside his skull. Dean _had_ to be okay! There was still time. _Oh_ _God, please let there be time!_

Sam pushed himself up from the floor, wincing a little when he accidentally used his casted wrist in the process. He swayed a little and had to hold on to the table for a few moments to steady himself before grabbing his jacket and staggering outside. Sam groaned and screwed up his eyes when the setting sun in the horizon hurt his sensitive eyes. The aftermath of one of his visions was always bad and combined with being sick, it was incredible that he could walk at all.

Sam jack-wired the nearest car, before he drove towards the beach in a rush. He wanted to make Dean a call but, to his big regret, he realized that he'd left his phone in the motel room.

"Shit." Sam cursed and let out a sob of worry for his big brother before flooring the gas pedal of the car even more.

 


	2. Chapter 2

The car barely came to a stop on the beach before Sam had ripped the car door open and had stumbled outside. The younger Winchester brother didn't know how he'd actually managed to get there in one piece since his head had kept throbbing painfully the entire way – making his already fever-blurred vision even blurrier. He felt dizzy and a bit disorientated, and Sam hadn't taken more than a couple of steps away from the car before he fell to his knees in the sand. He fought to control his breathing that had gone haywire in a combination of his congested airways and worry for his big brother, digging his fingers into the sand and coughing a few times in the process.

" _I would have loved to get my way with you before killing you, but beggars can't be choosers_."

"No." Sam said, clenched his eyes shut and pressed his palms into his eyes to chase away the horrible flashes that kept haunting him; images of the succubus ripping out Dean's heart.

The youngest Winchester brother had lost his mother at the age of six months, had lost his girlfriend twenty-two years later and had recently lost his father as well. He couldn't lose Dean too. _Not Dean, never Dean._

Sam clenched his jaw hard and willed his physically exhausted body to keep going, so he got back on his wobbly feet and started walking through the sand.

"Hey! You can't park here!" Someone yelled but Sam didn't care. He had a big brother to save.

In Sam's vision, Dean had followed behind the succubus and her latest victim onto a boat, so the younger brother knew he had to look for a pier somewhere. It wasn't hard locating it though because Sam could spot the masts from at least a few dozens of ships, lighted up by the last sunbeams of the day, in the distance – the hard part was getting there, since every single step he took felt like was he moving through quicksand. Even though the air was still pretty warm, the young Winchester brother was shivering – despite the fact that sweat was prickling out on his forehead, making his bangs wet and sticky. There were only few people still left on the beach and they all shot Sam weird looks as he passed by.

Sam had to stop up a minute - bent forward a little and rested his hands on his knees while trying to catch his breath. Images of Dean dying were still clouding his mind and Sam dry-heaved a few times and coughed.

"You alright, son?" An elderly man suddenly asked and put his hand on Sam's shoulder.

The man then startled back a few steps as Sam flinched away from the touch as if he'd been burned.

"Don't." Sam gasped out. "Just.. don't."

Sweat dripped down from his nose and some made it into his eyes. Sam wiped his face with his sleeve and blinked rapidly a few times.

"You don't look very well." The elderly man carefully commented. "Why don't I go get you some help? You look like you could need it."

But Sam didn't hear a word of it because something else had caught his attention; A beach bar – the bar from his vision. Was his big brother still there or had Dean already left to follow behind the succubus and her prey? The thought of it made Sam's stomach knot. He had to find Dean _right now._

Sam straightened back up and – despite the elderly man's protests – he started moving forward once more. It didn't take him too long to reach the pier and Sam closed his eyes for a moment as he tried to recall where the boat was. It had been somewhere at the end of the pier. He was pretty sure of that. Sam opened his eyes back up and looked at the several rows of boat bridges of the pier, biting his lower lip as panic starting seeping through. Which row was it? Was he already too late to save Dean? A small sob escaped him and Sam then picked one of the boat bridges before he started moving again – praying he'd picked the right one.

Sam reached the end of the pier and there was.. nothing _._ No boat, no succubus, _no Dean._ He'd picked the wrong boat bridge. Dean could be dying right now and Sam wouldn't be able to save him.

"No." Sam said, fighting the urge to just give up and start crying.

The younger Winchester brother looked frantically from side to side and his heart clenched painfully when his eyes caught sight of the right boat – just a few rows away from him. But how was he gonna get there in time? Should he return to the other end of the boat bridge and find the right row or was there another option for him to use that could save him some precious time? Ah heck – sick or not - he was a Winchester after all.

Sam climbed onto a yacht nearby, moved to the other end of it, by walking on the little line of footing by the rail, and he somehow managed to jump onto the boat behind it – closer to the boat that was his goal. Sam continued his mission and when there was only one boat between the one he was passing through and the boat that Dean and the succubus would be on, Sam saw a man enter the boat with a woman that he – after blinking a few times to make his blurry eyes focus - recognized as the succubus. Sam's heart started beating faster. He knew he didn't have long to stop his big brother from being killed, so he hurried to walk the last distance and jumped onto the far end of the succubus' boat.

As Sam snuck closer to the succubus and the man who the creature had brought along with her, the younger Winchester brother could see that the succubus was currently straddling the man, kissing him and unbuttoning his shirt. From Sam's view, he could see that the creature had a pair of handcuffs in her hand that she was probably gonna use on her victim. She would soon do to him what she had done to the three other victims but Sam worried more about what she was about to do to his big brother. Speaking of the older Winchester brother, Dean suddenly showed up out of the blue with a knife in his hand and Sam nearly gasped out loud as he realized that he'd reached the moment from his vision where Dean would get killed.

Dean moved forward towards the succubus and Sam jumped out of his hiding to run the last bit of the way across the deck. Just as Dean raised his knife and the succubus spun around, Sam connected with the both of them like a flying projectile; pushing his brother out of the way while he himself rolled across the deck with the succubus in a tangled mess. Sam's head then connected with a hard object and his vision immediately blackened.

**_ SPN _**

Dean groaned as he got up from the deck that he'd fallen down onto - the air having been knocked out of him in the fall. He'd fortunately not lost his knife in the process and Dean clenched the haft of it while wondering how he had ended up being pushed to the ground, or more specifically; _who_ had pushed him to the ground? And where was the succubus?

The man, whom the succubus had wanted as her next victim, had moved to the steering system of the boat – probably under the influence of whatever the succubus had poisoned him with – and he turned on the engine of the boat and started steering it out on the open sea. Dean turned his head to see where they were going, but what caught his eyes made his stomach turn to ice.

"Shit." Dean muttered and clenched the knife in his hand hard. _What the hell was Sam doing here?_

The succubus was standing about twenty feet away from the older Winchester brother with an arm around Sam's neck from behind and with a knife pressed against Sam's throat. The younger brother was at the wrong side of conscious; his eyes closed but his head shifting slightly which meant that he was probably trying to return to the land of the living. Sam's hands had apparently been cuffed in front of his body – which Dean couldn't believe was very comfortable with the cast around Sam's wrist – and he was bleeding from a rash above his right eye. Dean also noticed how awful Sam looked; his little brother's face was pale and sweaty and – even if he _had_ been completely conscious and the succubus wasn't holding him up – Dean doubted he would have been able to stand at all.

"You bitch!" Dean growled with eyes burning of anger. "I'm gonna kill you!"

"You're forgetting that I have a knife pressed to this guy's throat." The succubus smiled and inhaled the scent of Sam's hair. "Or should I say your _brother_?"

"Let him go!" Dean snarled and took a threatening step forward.

"Ah-ah." The succubus said, pressing the knife a little harder to Sam's throat which made Dean stop up. A little flow of blood trickled down from Sam's throat and Dean clenched his jaw hard.

" _Sam shouldn't even have been here."_ Dean thought in a mix of worry for his little brother and anger towards the succubus.

"You know, the wounded hearts taste the best." The succubus said, and Dean's anger flared as she stuck out her tongue and licked some of Sam's blood off his cheek. "You and your brother lost someone recently, didn't you? I could smell you from miles away."

"Let. Him. Go." Dean repeated and clenched the knife in his hand almost painfully hard. " _Now_!"

"No, I don't think I will." The succubus said, tightening her arm around Sam's neck which made the younger Winchester brother groan softly. "Your brother carries a lot of sorrow in his heart and I can't wait to have a taste of that."

"I swear to God, if you touch my brother I'll rip your heart out!" Dean roared.

"No honey, I'll rip _your_ heart out." The succubus said with a sugary smile that made Dean feel sick. How he could have found the woman attractive earlier was a mystery to him now. Anyone even _thinking_ about hurting his little brother was hideous inside out to Dean.

Sam groaned again and this time his fluttered open to tiny slits. It didn't take him more than a few seconds to realize that he had been cuffed and had a knife pressed to his throat, and it made his eyes widen while he let out a surprised gasp.

"Sam." Dean said to catch the younger brother's attention.

Sam's eyes found Dean's and the brothers shared a look that calmed the youngest a bit. _It's gonna be okay._ Sam nodded as much as he was able to do in the position he was in and Dean turned his eyes back at the succubus.

"Having a little moment?" She asked.

Dean didn't say anything. He was busy wondering how he could attack the succubus without hurting Sam in the process, but it was a bit easier to do now that Sam was awake. Despite the fact that Sam was hurt and sick, he was still a well-trained hunter and Dean knew his brother was capable of a lot more than the succubus seemed to think – knife to his throat or not.

"Dean!" Sam suddenly shouted and Dean spun around to find that the man that had come close to be the succubus' snack, was about to attack the older brother from behind. Dean placed a solid kick to the man's stomach while Sam used the sudden distraction to knock the knife out of the succubus' hand and break the hold she had around his neck. Sam and the succubus both went after the knife but in Sam's current state, his coordinates were slow and misjudged so he tripped over something on the deck and – since he couldn't use his hands to break his fall – Sam stumbled right into the railing of the boat, flipped over it and nose-dived into the water underneath him.

"Sam!" Dean shouted, had turned around just in time to see his brother disappear over the railing.

The succubus picked up the knife from the deck but as she turned around to face the oldest Winchester brother, Dean stabbed his silver knife right into the creature's heart. The succubus gasped and looked at Dean with wide eyes, and Dean smiled coldly in return.

"Told you I would kill you." He said and twisted the knife before pulling it out – the succubus' eyes turning blank before she fell into a boneless heap on the deck. "That was for Sammy, you bitch."

Dean dropped the bloody knife and ran to the railing where he'd seen Sam disappear. He let his eyes search the water for his younger brother and panic soon started filling his heart as he couldn't see Sam anywhere.

"What happened?" The man asked as he got back on his feet somewhere behind Dean. "Where am I? Who are you?"

"A part of the two reasons you're still alive." Dean answered and shot the man a glare before he swung himself over the railing of the still moving boat and jumped into the dark ocean.

The water wasn't as cold as Dean had feared, but the sun was gone by now and the only light he'd got was the moonlight reflected by the water around him.

"Sam!" Dean called, frantically swimming around in circles as he tried to spot his brother. "Sam!"

Dean took in a deep breath and dived underneath the surface. _Nothing_.

"Sam!" Dean shouted again and spit out a bit of water. "Sammy! Sam!"

Dean's heart hammered almost painfully inside his chest as he kept searching for his missing little brother. Sam had not only been sick but also hurt and cuffed. Dean knew he wouldn't last long in the middle of the ocean and the thought of it made him sick. He wouldn't let Sam drown out here, he just wouldn't. Dean dived underneath the surface again but once again came up empty-handed.

"Sammy!" Dean shouted and took a few more swimming strokes.

He was about to shout Sam's name again when his boot connected with something underneath the water; something solid but yet soft. Dean took in a big breath and dived underneath the surface again. The water was dark and turbid, but Dean could see a shape a little down and soon his fingers found the soft mop that he knew was Sam's hair. Dean managed to grasp onto Sam's shoulder and dragged his brother upwards before breaking through the surface.

"Sam." Dean sputtered, struggling to keep Sam above the surface and look him over at the same time.

Sam's eyes were closed and Dean's heart skipped a beat when he realized Sam wasn't breathing.

"No.. You don't get to do this to me, Sammy." Dean said and moved Sam's cuffed hands around the older brother's neck so that Dean could hold Sam up and use both hands to tend the younger hunter at the same time.

Dean tilted Sam's lolling head back a little and pinched his nose shut before breathing into Sam's mouth. Fortunately, Dean didn't have to repeat the motion more than twice before Sam started coughing up water.

"That's it, little brother." Dean mumbled and gently patted Sam on the back. "You're alright, you're alright."

Sam continued coughing, gasped for breath and gulped big amounts of air into his abused lungs.

"De- .. Dean." Sam gasped out, his voice hoarse and his breathing wheezing.

"Right here, Sammy. I've got you." Dean said, still with Sam's arms around his neck. If someone saw the brothers right now, they would probably wonder if they were in the middle of some kind of intimate embrace, but Dean couldn't care less about what people might or might not think right now.

Sam let his forehead rest on Dean's shoulder while he still coughed softly. Now that he knew that his big brother had him, all energy had drained from his exhausted body and Sam closed his eyes while allowing himself to be consumed by the safety and protectiveness of his older brother. Dean was here. Dean was _alive._

"Hey. You with me?" Dean asked and Sam nodded into Dean's shoulder.

"I'm with you." Sam mumbled.

"Good because I need you to help me out a bit here." Dean said, treading water. "Move your legs, Sam."

"Can't. Too tired." Sam mumbled.

"Bullshit Sammy, come on." Dean said. "I'm not gonna let go of you but you have to help me here."

Keeping himself _and_ Sam above the surface was starting to get hard. Sam moved his legs a little bit but his body was beyond exhausted by now – too busy trying to fight the fever to care about anything else. The younger brother's teeth started chattering and Dean pulled Sam impossibly closer in hope of providing his brother with just a little bit of warmth.

"We gotta get to shore." Dean said – more to himself really than to Sam. "Come on."

Dean twisted around until he had Sam behind him instead of in front of him - but still with Sam's cuffed hands secured around his neck.

"This would have been so much easier if you were still the small scrawny kid you used to be." Dean complained a bit out of breath which made Sam snort softly. Settled behind his brother like this, Sam actually _did_ feel like the small scrawny kid he'd once been – back in the days where he believed that there was nothing his big brother couldn't do. In situations like this, Sam secretly still believed that.

Dean strained to swim back towards the shore that he could easily spot, but the distance was rather large and Dean was already getting tired.

"Sam." Dean panted. "You gotta help me, man. Move your legs."

"Trying." Sam mumbled.

And Sam did try – he really did – but his body wouldn't cooperate much. He managed to move his legs a little bit and Dean didn't ask for more than that. He knew Sam was doing all he could do in this mess they'd gotten themselves into.

A sound caught the older brother's ears and Dean scanned the area for the reason as the sound came closer and closer. Then suddenly a boat showed up out of the blue and lowered its speed as it approached the brothers.

"Hey!" Someone shouted and Dean looked up to see the man that had almost become the succubus prey, looking down at them from the boat. "I thought you could need some help."

Dean smiled in relief and swam closer to the boat with Sam in tow.

"Help me with my brother, will ya?" Dean asked the man.

"Of course." The man answered and reached down for Sam as Dean removed Sam's cuffed hands from his neck.

"Careful." Dean said to the man who nodded his answer before he put his hands underneath Sam's armpits and pulled him up while Dean pushed from the water.

Sam groaned as he was manhandled onto the boat and he watched the man warily as he sat him down on a little landing on the deck.

"I'm William O'Conner but you can just call me Bill." The man told Sam and reached out a hand to shake the young hunter's hand but faltered when he noticed the cuffs on Sam's hands and the broken wrist.

Dean then climbed onboard and he instantly squashed past Bill to crouch down in front of Sam.

"You okay, kiddo?" Dean asked and brushed a hand through Sam's bangs to move the sticky hair out of Sam's eyes.

Sam nodded and Dean gave the younger brother's neck a reassuring squeeze.

"Is there anything I can do?" Bill asked.

"It would be great if you could find a blanket and a first-aid kit somewhere." Dean answered without turning his eyes away from his brother.

"Roger that." Bill said before leaving.

Dean reached into his jacket pocket, pulled out a (wet) set of lock picks and gently grabbed Sam's hands before he started picking the locks of the handcuffs – making a mental note to visit a hospital somewhere to get Sam's wet cast replaced by a new one.

"Why were you out here, Sammy?" Dean asked and Sam winced a little when Dean removed the cuffs, rubbing a bit at his sore wrists.

"I.." Sam started when Bill returned with the items Dean had requested; a first-aid kit and a blanket.

"Here you go." Bill said and handed the things over to the older brother.

"Thanks." Dean said as he accepted them.

"I didn't know what to do about her." Bill said and nodded in the direction of the dead succubus that was still lying on the deck a little away from them. "I do remember what happened but I don't understand what she is.. or was."

"Don't worry about her." Dean said and wrapped the blanket around Sam's shoulders. "I'll take care of it. You just get us back to shore, alright?"

"Alright." Bill said and started walking back to the steering system but turned back around when he was halfway there. "I don't know what that.. that _creature_ was, but I do know that you boys saved my life, so.. thanks."

"You're welcome." Dean said and Bill nodded a bit before leaving the brothers alone.

Dean opened up the first-aid kit and found a piece of gauze before he gently started dabbing at the wound above Sam's eye.

"So, what are you doing out of bed, Sammy?" Dean asked his younger brother. "I had everything under control."

"No, you didn't." Sam said and shot Dean a dewy-eyed look. "You would have died."

"What are you talking about?" Dean asked with a confused frown. "I wouldn't have.."

"Yes, you would!" Sam exclaimed, cutting off his brother. "I saw it, Dean. I had a vision where the succubus ripped out your heart. You would have _died_."

Sam's voice broke and Dean's heart clenched as he watched Sam struggling hard to compose himself.

"Hey." Dean said in a soft voice and put his hand on the back of Sam's neck. "It's okay now, I'm not dead."

Sam looked up and Dean caught his eyes in a reassuring look.

"Apparently some giant Sasquatch saved my sorry ass this time around." Dean smiled and Sam shot him a little soft smile in return.

"You saved me too." Sam said.

"Damn right I did, little brother." Dean said. "And don't you forget about it."

Sam snorted and Dean chuckled a bit before applying some pieces of gauze tape on Sam's forehead to keep the wound closed. He also cleaned the small slash on Sam's throat.

"You hurt anywhere else?" Dean wanted to know but Sam shook his head.

"I don't think so." Sam said and coughed a little. "Just tired."

Dean got up from his crouched position before he sat down next to Sam and let his younger brother lean against him.

"Hey Dean." Sam said and then hesitated.

"Yeah?" Dean asked while carding a hand through his short wet-dripping hair.

"I don't think I like California anymore." Sam admitted and Dean knew the youngest Winchester brother was thinking about what had happened the last time he'd been in this area and what had been close to happen this time as well.

"Me neither, Sammy." Dean agreed.

They would soon be back at the pier and Dean had to figure out how to get rid of the succubus' body while also following Sam back to the Impala. He had no doubts about what was most important though.

Dean turned his head and smiled when he saw how hard Sam was trying to stay awake. Sam would be asleep as soon as he'd been situated in the Impala, and Dean would make sure that Sam got back on his feet again.

" _If you can't save Sam then you have to kill him._ "

John Winchester's last words were still haunting the older brother. He didn't understand why his dad had told him what he did, but Dean at least knew something; that he would never be able to kill his baby brother, his Sammy.

"You can close your eyes if you want." Dean said. "I'll wake you up when we reach the shore."

"Thanks Dean." Sam said and gratefully let his head rest against Dean's shoulder as he closed his eyes.

" _If you can't save Sam then you have to kill him."_

Dean tucked the blanket closer around Sam and put an arm around his brother's shoulders. There were a lot of things Dean couldn't do anything about; he couldn't bring back the people they'd lost, he couldn't do anything about those damn visions Sam had - that somehow had been the reason why Dean was currently still alive, he realized and pulled Sam closer. But Dean would always save Sam. Always. It was as simple as that.

  
  
**THE END**


End file.
